A NaNoWriMo Introspection: The First Chapter

By Irish87 · Dec 8, 2009 · ·
  1. Alright, well I'll put the link into my signature, but if you want you can go here and read the first chapter of my NaNoWriMo novel. Now that I look back, however, I might forewarn you about the terrible grammar and the strange beginning.

    Before I continue on, let me be honest: I wrote this coming from the perspective of somebody who hates fantasy. I'm sorry to all those who love it, I understand why you might but the current way in which it is churned out, as though it's little more than food to be tossed into a pen full of obese toddlers, is offensive to me as a reader. Every other damned story seems to be wrought with the same thing, whether it be the farm boy or the dragons or the all mighty elves. It's enough to make somebody like me swear off fantasy forever. So, after being dared by a friend of mine, I decided it would be a good idea to write a fantasy novel. Naturally.

    In agreeing to this I made a list of fantasy cliches and, one by one, began checking them off. If you have the time I would appreciate you reading along:

    1. No Farmboys turned ubermensh.
    2. Women are equal in all ways. No, they don't wear leather thongs or metal bras. They wear clothes and, if they're soldiers, they wear uniforms. I know, I know, it's boring this way. Sorry.
    3. No homophobia.
    4. The main character is not the aforementioned Aryan ubermensh. Nope, he's a thirty-something year old soldier whose wife leaves him eventually and who I picture looking like Pharrel Williams but less... awesome.
    5. Technology has exceeded wood and iron. Hooray for black powder and psychology!
    6. Racial stereotypes are ignored. Goblins are peaceful geniuses and elves are violent zealots.
    7. Capitalism is not inherently evil, though, just like any other system of economics, it can be corrupted.
    8. Not everyone rides a horse. Horses are expensive!
    9. There are no kings. Sorry, I designed the world around representative republics and theocracies.
    10. There are no epic battles that win the day. Sure, there are battles that are decisive, but none of them win the war by themselves.
    11. There is a strong social setting. Instead of ignoring how society plays a role on the character, I made it an important function. The very first chapter talks about how elves in the human/goblin nation are treated like dogs.

    My goal with this story was simply to write a fantasy novel that does not rely on cliches. I made the elves seemingly evil because it's a different perspective. In truth they're simply heavily religious people who had a large chunk of their population dissent from them and make a nation which threatens them. They are no more evil than the humans and that is the point. None of us are inherently good or bad, it all comes from the choices we make.

    -Irish

    P.S.: None of this was edited or proofread. I'm tired.

Comments

  1. Unsavory
    This is probably the fourth or fifth time I've clicked on your blog with the intention of responding, but I can't quite figure out what I want to say. I guess it's just important to realize that avoiding cliches is easy. What's more vital is turning around and writing a good story.

    I write a lot of fantasy myself and I find that the most affective method isn't figuring out what to avoid, but figuring out what I want to say and how I can relay a contemporary message using a fantastical setting. The biggest problem with cliches is the way that they limit the imagination from expanding past basic ideas that have been done a thousand times before.

    Honestly, the nature of elves isn't the cliche. Elves themselves are the cliche. Why have elves at all when there are an infinite number of imaginary creatures that might suit your story better? But conversely, why take away dragons when you have a kick ass original idea of how to write about them?

    All of that is just for the sake of argument though since it sounds like you have a solid idea for a novel. I plan on reading the first chapter soon. I have no reason to criticise your methods, but the topic of avoiding cliches has become so commonplace that one might even call it cliche.
  2. Irish87
    I didn't actually consider the nation of elves a cliche since that nation is also home to humans, goblins, and to a lesser extent orcs. I took the common roles that each of those races play and switched them. Trust me, if it were up to me I would have gladly ignored the elves and the goblins, but my goal was to write a story which involves them, all the while avoiding the standard ideas revolving around them.

    The first thing that I did for the elves was change their appearance. They're no longer exceedingly tall and elegant and their ears are described as human-like, just slightly pointed at the ends. I wanted to make it seem that elves are the exact same as humans, the only difference is their religion and a slight change in their bodies. If we are to look at other races that we live with in the real world we'd be foolish not to notice a difference between each in regards to our anatomy.

    The story I wrote is, if nothing else, an allegory for how we, as civilized and modern thinking peoples, are still capable of ignorant bigotry based entirely off of the color of somebodies skin. In the case of this story it is a hatred fueled by war and perceived atrocities, even if those horrific events were put upon the other people as well by the original victims. I hope that made sense lol.
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